more differences than similarities. 1. Similarities Both the Berne Convention and the UCC aim to protect international copyright, based on the principles of national treatment and nondiscrimination and provide for dispute settlement by the International Court of Justice, although no copyright dispute has ever been taken to it. Despite this, both conventions have little or no enforcement power. Besides, the conventions cover almost the same categories of subject matter of protection, which includes such works as painting, architecture, photographic works, illustrations, three- dimensional works related to geography, topography, architecture or science, as well as books and cinematographic works. The protection can also extend to derivative works and collections of literary and artistic works, but protection of governmental or other official works is made optional for each member-state (Copyright Office, 1989). 2. Differences First, the Berne Convention (1887) is much older than the UCC (1952). It is also interesting to note that the Berne Convention provides protection for authors, while the UCC protects works (Nasri, 1972). Second, two conventions are supervised by different United Nations' agencies. The Berne Convention is administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), a United Nations agency established in 1967. As the major international institution dealing with both copyright and patent matters, WIPO covers a broad range of international issues and is generally regarded as the preeminent source of technical knowledge. On the other hand, the UCC's administering body is the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which is also involved in issues regarding protection of copyrights. Its meetings are attended by representatives from various international nongovernmental organizations, including the International Publishers Association and the International Film and Television Council. In terms of duration of copyright protection, the Berne Convention offers more extensive protection than the UCC. The Berne Convention provides for a minimum period of the author's life plus 50 years, the UCC for the author's life plus 25 years. In a few cases, the UCC has further reduced the period of protection, depending upon what it determines to be the social or scientific value of the work. For example, for published "applied arts," the 25-year duration is lowered to 10 years. Besides, under the Berne Convention, a member-state must extend to Union authors an extensive body of minimum rights regardless of its national laws. These rights include copyright duration of author's life plus 50 years, moral rights and provisions for free use. Under the UCC, these rights, added at the 1971 Paris Convention, include only rights of reproduction, translation, control over public performance and the right of broadcasting (Gasaway & Wiant, 1994). The Berne Convention also requires no formalities such as a notice for copyright protection, while the UCC requires three minimum copyright standards, namely, letter c in circle, the author's name and date of publication, for the work to be protected. Finally, the Berne Convention requires a member-state to protect "moral rights" through its domestic legislation, while this is not part of the UCC. Moral rights are defined as rights extending beyond economic rights and are safeguarded even if the copyright is transferred (Stalson, 1987). This was an important issue that had prevented the U.S., a member of the UCC, from joining the Berne Convention until March 1, 1989. 3. Conflict At present, most major industrialized countries belong to the Berne Convention as well as the UCC. These countries include the United States, Britain, most European countries, Japan, Australia and Canada. The list also includes large developing countries such as China and India. Now the question: What if a country belongs to two or more conventions and treaties and the copyright protection is in conflict? For instance, John simultaneously publishes a book in Canada and the United States and then wants to know what protection he has in France, which belongs to both the Berne Convention and the UCC. The rule is that John is entitled to the most favorable copyright protection. To provide a more specific example, since the minimum duration for copyright protection is life plus 50 years under the Berne Convention, and only life plus 25 years under the UCC, John's copyright is good for his life plus for 50 years. But, if John's book is published without a proper copyright notice, Berne Convention countries will give it protection, while some UCC countries will not. Besides, if John's book is originally published in a Berne Convention country, John, a resident of a UCC country, is also entitled to all the protection allowed under the Berne Convention, without giving up any UCC rights (Netscape2, 1995). 4. Protection in Countries Not Covered by the Conventions In the early 1990s, most countries joined either the Berne Convention or the UCC or both. But there are still a number of countries that belong to no international convention (see Appendix 3). To deal with the international copyright protection in non-member countries, member countries of the conventions usually sign bilateral or multilateral agreements with them, which makes it possible for copyrights to be protected in a country even though the country has no formal treaty relationships. For instance, the United States and China worked under this arrangement before China joined both the Berne Convention and the UCC in 1992 (Qian, 1988). V. THE TRIPS AND THE WTO The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS) was concluded in 1994 as part of the Uruguay Round multilateral trade agreement. It provides for establishment of standards for protection of a full range of intellectual property rights and the enforcement of those standards both at home and abroad. Under this ac

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